UConn Travels To Tulsa For Meeting With Top Team In AAC

TULSA, Okla. – Say this for the American Conference: It throws something new at the Huskies just about every week.

As they filed off the plane, many, if not all the players, were setting foot in Oklahoma for the first time. On Tuesday they will play an unfamiliar opponent in an unfamiliar place.

"I don't think anyone's ever been to Oklahoma, but we're here for a business trip," Omar Calhoun said. "Tulsa's got a real good team, they're leading the conference right now. We'll be coming out focused, looking for a win. We know they can play."

All the Huskies need to know is that the Golden Hurricane, in their first season in the conference, went to Philadelphia and knocked off Temple last weekend. Temple beat UConn 57-53 in OT on New Year's Eve. Tulsa (10-5), after a rough start with some bad nonconference losses, has won five in a row and is the last unbeaten team in the AAC at 3-0. UConn (9-5, 2-1) can catch Tulsa in the conference standings with a win at the Reynolds Center on Tuesday at 9:30 p.m.

"[Coach] Frank Haith has been a lot of places, and he's transitioned his team to a high level," UConn coach Kevin Ollie said. "They're playing at a high level right now."

Tulsa won 21 games last season, losing to UCLA in the NCAA Tournament, after which coach Danny Manning left for Wake Forest. Tulsa has much of that team back, with Haith, formerly of Miami and Missouri, taking over. Things bottomed out for Tulsa on Dec. 10 with a loss to Division II Southeastern Oklahoma State, but much has changed since. Tulsa is 38th in the RPI rankings.

"When you have a new coaching staff take over a program, I don't care how much experience you've got, it takes time," Haith said after practice Monday. "Not just trust between the coaching staff, but trust in the players and the players having trust in us. All that stuff takes time and I think our guys are getting better. We're no finished product, by any means. It's still January, but I think there's no question we've grown as the year has progressed along."

Cincinnati and UConn were pushing and shoving their way through another basketball game, much the way teams did in the old Big East. The Huskies had to respond, match the physicality, and so they did, grinding out a 62-56 win. Here's what we learned:

1. UConn-tough: There have been times this season...

Cincinnati and UConn were pushing and shoving their way through another basketball game, much the way teams did in the old Big East. The Huskies had to respond, match the physicality, and so they did, grinding out a 62-56 win. Here's what we learned:

1. UConn-tough: There have been times this season...

(Dom Amore)

The Golden Hurricane play a style much like UConn, with emphasis on guards. They often play four guards in a small, quick lineup. Shaquille Harrison, the AAC player of the week, is the centerpiece. He is averaging 21.3 points in league play and he leads his team in scoring, assists and steals – and, at 6 feet 3, he is second in blocks.

"We can't take them lightly," Ryan Boatright said. "They've got a great ballhandler and a great point guard in Harrison – he's relaxed with the basketball. They play hard, they've got size.

"It's no different than with any point guard I face. I've been toe-to-toe with the best of them, supposed to be first round and all types of other stuff. He's a good player and I respect him, but it's going to be a dogfight. It's not going to be easy."

Said Haith: [Harrison's] got that killer instinct, like a silent assassin. He's one of those guys that plays with great toughness. He's always been a really good athlete. I think he's a really good basketball player right now. I think his feel for the game has gotten so much better."

In addition to Harrison, Tulsa's other guard, James Woodard, can also score, or be the facilitator. It's a skillset similar to what UConn had with Shabazz Napier and Boatright last season.

"We've got to contend with a lot of different things, but it starts with the point of attack," Ollie said. "We have to slow down their guards, probably like what they're seeing with us, and our guard attack. We've got to slow them down and not let them be effective and control the whole game."

The Huskies, 73rd in RPI, are heading in a positive direction after three wins in a row, and have an opportunity to improve it with this game and the next one, at Stanford on Saturday night. Strong second-half defense has been a key for UConn, but the Huskies also shot 47 percent against Cincinnati, a measure, Ollie said, of how mature they've become after their own difficult start.

"I think they're on a roll," said Haith, whose staff includes former UConn assistant Dave Leitao. "Obviously a [defending] national champion and Kevin Ollie, a coach who I have a tremendous amount of respect for — It's a great opportunity for our young men. You've got to bring your hard hat. ... They're going to fight to the end. They're going to scrap. ... We've got to be ready to go toe-to-toe against those guys because they're going to bring it. They're better offensively than they were early in the year. They've gotten guys back and they're looking like they're more in rhythm."

UConn and Tulsa have played just once before, in the New Haven Coliseum in 1978. Ollie played some NBA games in Tulsa with the Oklahoma City Thunder. You get the idea that having UConn, as a defending national champion, is a rather big deal in this town.

"UConn is a big-name program," Harrison said. "Every year, they've got great players and they've got a great coach. Beating them would really boost up Tulsa's name, but I feel like we can't go into that just to beat them to get publicity. Our No. 1 goal is to win the conference and you can't lose games like this if you want to win it, so it's a huge game for us."